In this episode, David George Brooke, The Gratitude Guy,  shares why you should practice gratitude,  how to do it, and a lot more!

For the video version Click Here

Resources mentioned

The Brookers Daily Gratitude Journal

Six-Word Lessons to Embrace Gratitude

3 Key Points

The key is to write in a gratitude journal daily.

You get to choose every day how you want to feel, so choose gratitude and positivity.

When you have a bad day, let it go and “get back on the horse” as quickly as possible. Get back to your gratitude practice.

Transcript

Hi Everybody and welcome to episode 75 today. My guest is David George, Brooke. The gratitude guy, David has been a speaker coach and bestselling author for over 25 years. He’s a former Nordstrom store manager and is managed in the corporate world for over 30 years. He’s published works including the Brooker’s Daily Gratitude Journal, Six-Word Lessons to Embrace Gratitude and a number of other books on gratitude.

As a result of his passion for gratitude, he’s presented over 650 speeches workshops in the past six years, and he’s traveled nationally and internationally to deliver this important message. He has a thousand gratitude videos on YouTube and over a thousand YouTube subscribers, thousands have seen his message, and he is now considered a leading authority on how living a life of gratitude can enhance and improve your life. And he lives in Seattle, Washington. So, welcome to the call, David.

[01:47] David: Thank you, Ellen. I’m very happy to be here.

Ellen: Well, we first met at a live event, but you knew who I was already.

David: Yes, I’d seen before, I think “The eBook Coach” and that type of thing. So, I kind of knew who you were. That was a neat event that we met at. I met a lot of neat people.

Ellen: Yeah. That was a neat event, Yeah. That was through Vicki Winterton.

David: Yes.

Ellen: The Magic Castle in Hollywood.

David: Exactly.

Ellen: Yeah. She puts on her a once a year I think it is.

David: I think once a year. Yeah.

Ellen: Yeah. But anyway, so I thought it was a good time to talk about gratitude. We’re getting towards the end of the year; it’s been a hard year; and so, I reached out to you. And why don’t you tell us a little bit about how did you become a gratitude authority?

[02:35] David: You bet. You bet. Well, it started actually back when I was nineteen years old, many, many years ago when I went and did a talk for a teacher of mine that had a, he had had me in his class and he wanted me to come and talk to his students about what was it going to take to be successful. So, I was a freshman at the University of Washington. I went to this high school to speak to this class. And when I got done speaking, I went out in my car and I sat in my car and I thought, that’s what I want to do someday; I want to be a motivational speaker.

[3:03] And it took me about forty-five years to realize that dream.  I did everything else as you heard, I mentioned that I was managing Nordstrom stores and other big box stores like Lowe’s. And it was always kind of in that retail world, but I had a lot of tragedies along the way. My parents died when I was relatively young, I was in my twenties when my mother passed away from cancer.

And then, my parents had been divorced, which was tough, and my father ended his own life. He was a successful attorney and decided he didn’t want to live anymore. And then, about ten or so years later, I was married and had two kids, and my wife passed away.

Ellen: Wow.

David So, there was a number of deaths, yeah,  deaths and traumas and setbacks and things.

[03:44]: And so, at some point, I was just really looking for a coping mechanism that was healthy. And I think there’s so many unhealthy ones. You think about the people that drank, and smoke, and drugs, and prescription medication and so forth. And so, I had a friend of mine that had one point said, “You need to get the gratitude journal.” And I said, “What is that?” And I was not familiar with it.

“Well, it’s a journal you write in every day and you talk about what you’re grateful for and you just take a little time and so forth.” And so, they kind of came together,  the speaking and being the motivational speaker and this gratitude, and I thought, “Gosh, why don’t I start talking about gratitude?” And then, at some point, I thought, somebody said, “Oh, you’re that gratitude guy. And I’ve heard you speak before,” like, “Oh, that’s kind of a good moniker or that’s kind of a good name.

[04:29]: And it’s funny. Cause since then people will say, well, David, George, Brooke, or David Brooke. And they may or may not remember me, but I had people come up to me and Starbucks quite a bit and go, “You’re that gratitude guy.  I saw you speak at so-and-so.” So, it’s been it’s turned out to be a good sort of a tag or tagline, but that’s what really got me going. And then, I just started out small and started speaking to small groups in the service organizations, Rotary Chamber, Lions, Kiwanis, and that type of thing. And it just kept growing and getting bigger and bigger.

And now I’ve been fortunate to speak to as many as 10,000 soldiers at joint base Lewis McChord here in the Northwest. So, it really fulfilled a lifelong dream to become a speaker. And it was the early sixties, my early sixties, when I finally did it. And now I’ve been doing this now for about eight or nine years, and it’s just the most satisfying work I’ve ever done.

[05:21] Ellen: Well, that is so awesome because how many people say, “Oh, I’m too old.” I remember when I first wanted to write a book, I was in my late forties and I’m like, “Well, am I too old?”  I laugh now, but at the time that was what I thought. And I know a lot of people think that, and  it’s so rewarding when I have older people in my book-writing boot camp. And they think that the dream’s over that they can never do it. And now they’re finally fulfilling their dream of writing a book. So, I know exactly what you mean.

[05:49] David: That’s a great point, Ellen. And I think I have kind of my heroes, and I think about Colonel Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was sixty-three, John Houseman, the famous actor was seventy-one when he got started acting and he got an Academy Award for the Paper Chase.

Ellen: Oh, I loved him. I loved him.

David: He was phenomenal, but he didn’t start until his late sixties. And then you have people like, a lot of people know of the Mary Kay Ash, Ray Kroc, people like that. They were in their mid-forties to early fifties.

In many cases, JC penny, I think was fifty-two when he started his store. So, I look at a lot of those people as kind of my heroes. And as I say, I was sixty-two. And I just thought, are you going to finally fulfill this dream? Or, are you going to keep working in retail and not ever be what you want to be? And I wanted to have my sons be proud of their dad that he set out to do something. And so that’s what got me finally going.

[06:40] Ellen: Right. Right. So, how do people get an attitude of gratitude? Are there any tricks and tips to this, or what’s the deal?

[06:47] David: Great question. And I think that I will say the centerpiece of my talks is my gratitude journal. And when I first got that gratitude journal, I ordered one from Amazon. And I tell people in my talks if you get a gratitude journal, you can get mine it’s available on Amazon, but you can also get a spiral notebook.

The key is to write in it every single day. And even if you start out slowly and you just write a bullet point or two about, “I’m grateful for my health and grateful for my family, my kids,” that’s the way to start. And then you can kind of expand. And I write in mind every single day, I never miss a day and it takes maybe five minutes. So, that’s probably the biggest way. But I think to your question, Ellen, the bigger thing is you have to kind of make a decision.

[07:27]: I always talk on, we get out of bed in the morning. You can get on the left side or the right side of your bed. And you’re either in a good mood or a bad mood. It’s up down plus minus happy, sad, negative, positive. It’s a choice, and choice that everybody gets to make every day. And if you choose to be grateful, I tell people what gratitude does is it helps you to focus on what you have versus what you don’t have. And one of my favorite taglines is “Gratitude turns what you have into enough.”

And it’s so powerful because we’re constantly consciously or subconsciously comparing ourselves to other people. And if you look at they have a better boat, better house, better car, a better wife, better husband. It’s crazy. It’s like a cat chasing its tail. So, it’s really a choice. And I tell people, if you write in that gratitude journal every day and really focus on, you’ve heard the glass half full, but if you focused on that, you just have a much better quality of life.

[08:21] Ellen: So, I know sometimes like when you get out of gratitude, like how do you get yourself back to that place? Like when you get in one of those bad moods or you get into another place, something happens, something triggers you.

David: Yes.

Ellen: And you’re not really thinking about gratitude, right? You’re thinking about “this sucks”.

[08:40] David: Exactly. Well, and I think for instance, that the old analogy about you fall off the horse it’s too bad you fell off. What’s the key thing to do?  It’s to get back on the horse, and people say the tragedy is not and falling down, but the tragedy is not getting up. So, gratitude and getting off on those detours or those tangents where its negatives is a very, very typical part of life.

And hopefully, it’s there less and so on, but it’s just that idea of getting up and dusting yourself off and getting back on. And I think that I noticed with people I’ve said them, gosh, I had a great question the other day from, I was on one of those in a Zoom where they asked me, and the guy says, you know, questions for the gratitude guy after the talk.

[09:18]: And, this one was, it’s all live. So, you can’t rehearse anything. And he says, “Well, I have to have a question for you. My friend just was in a house fire in one of these many forest fires around the country and he lost everything. Except the all he had is his two kids and his wife, but the house and the cars and everything burned out. What would you say to him?” And I said, “Well, I said, there’s going to be people that are going to tell you that he should focus on the fact that he’s got his life, he’s got his wife, he’s got his kids, and he’s got those blessings. And that’s true, right?”

But I said, “The biggest thing you can give him is just the ability just to listen, and let him talk, and let him say whatever he wants to; don’t judge, don’t comment, just listen and acknowledge.

[09:57]: And you’ll be doing them a great favor just by letting him express all the things that are going on in his head because every day is not a great day. And I always tell people when I can do my hand waving in front of the crowd about like a roller coaster, that’s life, it’s up and down, whether it’s David or Ellen or whoever, we all have ups and downs. And the key is you want to have more ups than downs, but the downs are where you learn the lessons. And when we get back to the ups, we want to stay there if we can.

But I think on those really tough downs, I’ve counseled people and coach people and said, “When you have a really tough day, nothing is working, right? You know what your main goal will be today? Just get to tomorrow for tomorrow will probably be better. But gratitude is kind of a power assist. And I tell people “I’m not going to peddle your bike, but I’ll be your training wheels.” And gratitude is kind of like a set of training wheels. It keeps the bike centered, but you got to do a lot of the peddling yourself.

[10:52] Ellen: Yeah. Also, about healing. It’s really counterproductive when people like are telling you, you should feel something other than your feeling when you need to have those feelings first, and then getting through so that you can get back to gratitude.

David: Yeah, exactly right, exactly right.

[11:09] Ellen: So, what about using gratitude for pandemic anxiety?

David: Well,

Ellen: How does that work?

David: Another interesting aspect is what I call “the silver linings of the coronavirus.” There’s been all this terrible thing. And we can all choose. It’s like I, as an example, I do an exercise where I do a lot of-in my talks- a lot of interactive. And we’re now on Zoom, where they have a piece of paper and a pen. I have them write things down.  And it shows how gratitude shifts your mindset.

And I said I have one example where I say, “Now have somebody pretend you’re your biggest cheerleader. And I want you to write all the things down about Ellen. You are fantastic. You are creative, you are talented. You are all the qualities of Ellen Violette as an example.” And then when they reread I have them tell me, tell me if you felt better after you re-read that- if you read all those things is your biggest cheerleader.

[12:00]: And so half the hands go up, if not two-thirds of them. And I said, one day I did that and somebody came up to me and said, “Why don’t you have somebody write all the good things? Why don’t you have them write their shortcomings?” And so, “What do you think this is? Is this like the negative hour?” Is this like when things are, of course, I’m going to have them write the positive thing. So, even in the Coronavirus is tough as it is in the cases, and people dying and lungs, and not being able to breathe, and all these terrible things, we still can see many things that are very positive out of it. And it’s again, you get a choice every single day to focus on the positive stuff or the negative and a good example in the silver linings of Coronavirus.

[12:41]: One is like Zoom, Zoom has completely changed my practice because now I’m speaking all across the country without having to get on an airplane. And you and I are not very close;  we’re a thousand miles apart, or what have you. And it’s so handy. And that can be the efficiencies of it. I had a gentleman that I used to see for coffee and I’d drive an hour and go to Starbucks and drive an hour back. Now we meet for Zoom on an hour, we have our coffee and then we’re done and we save two hours.

Ellen: Right.

David: And there’s families that are having family dinner again, that they didn’t have cause the kids were at home, and more quality time that even though the schools aren’t necessarily in right now, they’re getting this family time they’ll never get back again that they have. And then before, you know what? You snap your fingers and the kids are gone. And, I talk about all the conveniences of the apps and the things that are the community, the software and the computers can do, I haven’t been in a grocery store in six months.

[13:37] Ellen: Yeah. I haven’t either delivery, delivery, delivery.

David: Right. Knock on the door. There’s Amazon fresh.

Ellen: I know and I don’t feel guilty anymore. When I used to do it, I felt guilty.  Now it’s like, “Hey, that’s the thing.

David:  It’s so true. And yeah. And I think even though there’s a number of other aspects of it that are the silver linings, one of the things that gratitude does is it really forces you to sort of reassign your priorities, and you really see what’s important. And it turns out it is your health and it is your family; it is your spouse, your significant other, your children, that family and friends’ group. And we get off on these tracks, and as you said earlier, it’s a great point, we go down these rabbit holes of negativity and we get caught, “Whoa, what’s going on here.” And we’ve got to kind of realign those priorities, and gratitude really helps you to do that. It makes a big difference.

[14:26] Ellen: Yeah. Well, yeah. Another thing I really love about the pandemic is all the people who have put educational programs online that they weren’t doing online before. I’ve gone to “live events,” where before you had to get on a plane and go there, and it’s a three-day event, you got to get a hotel room and all that stuff. And it was a real pain to do it. And we eat all organic and dealing what the food is hard and everything.

And now I’m doing them from home. I’ve gone to the next week will be my third live event (when we’re recording this). And a lot of people are doing challenges, and I have one coming up, and it’s great. I love-that really is the silver lining. For me the downside too is, as I was telling you before we started my hair, it’s just to me a train wreck. I can’t get a haircut because now it’s too cold to be sitting outside to do it.

[15:17]: I just finally found someone who could cut my hair outside.

David: Oh wow.

Ellen: And then, I was on a networking call this morning, somebody who does photography, branding and headshots and all that. And I haven’t had that done a long time, but I just told her I’m not going to do it until after I get my hair cut. And I’m probably not getting my haircut until spring. So, there you go. So, everybody gets used to it. But yeah, there are a lot, there’s a lot of good things. And then there’s some things that are, eh. But I think the hardest part though is just being cooped up, because I worked at home before, this happened. I’ve been working at home since 2004.  Actually, I’ve been working at home practically my whole life cause I used to be in the music business and we had our own studio. So, I’ve had very few jobs in my life. I’ve had a few.

David: But I think that’s a good point about being cooped up though.

Ellen: Yeah.

David: … because I sort of expanded my exercise. This roughly started in March of 2020.

Ellen: Yeah.

David: Earlier this year, of course. So, we’re in our seventh and eighth month, whatever it is.

Ellen: Right.

David: And so, I would start working in my condo and I’ve got Zoom and I’ve gotten my videos and all the things that I need to create content and hook on and coach people through Zoom and so forth. But what I noticed that I did because I’ll work at the usual ten, eleven-hour, day or something. So, I started taking an hour, maybe a half hour at first, then an hour out to exercise and go walk, and I’ll shoot videos, and I’ll listen to podcasts, which your grad was on and walked through a day when I was to a couple of years. And now I walk for two hours, and that’s about 15,000 to 18,000 steps.

[16:48] Ellen: Wow.

David: It’s about six to seven miles. But I noticed that again with technology, I have my phone so I can shoot a couple of videos. “Hi, it’s David George Brooke,  that gratitude guy, on the gratitude walk, and I’m out here shooting those videos.” I put it on all sorts of social media. Then,  I listened to a couple of podcasts. I’ll call a couple of people I owe phone calls to. I’ll put some notes on my notepad on the phone I’m thinking of, “Be sure to call Ellen back.” And I put it on the yellow notepad thing.

And so, you have this,  you’re out there getting fresh air, getting this exercise, you’re still multitasking, which makes you feel like you’re accomplishing something, but it’s now, I knew  what time I was speaking to you today, so I thought once I got up and went through, and wrote in the gratitude journal, and meditated, and drank the water, and do all the normal things that we kind of do as daily rituals, I thought, “Well, I think I’ll be gone from about nine to about eleven.” And I was out for about two hours, but that really takes that kind of gets that being cooped up, not so bad because…

[17:44] Ellen: Well you know what, that’s a great tip though for people to see how they can better use their time. It’s hard for me because my husband doesn’t like to be left alone; he’s eighty-nine. And so, we walk together, and he just can’t walk that long.

David: Oh, yeah.

Ellen: That far. So, yeah. So, I’m feeling a little cooped up, but yeah, but I try to dance in the house and do some other exercise things. But yeah, it does kind of get to me after a while. I really do love the fresh air and the sunshine and also, we have a pool where we live, but they’re not letting anyone in, so we can’t even go sit, sit down.

[18:17] David: Yeah, but you know, I even think about something like with your husband, as I can picture where with a cell phone, you could also make a loop around the neighborhood or something where you’re just within two or three minutes of the house all the time but make six or seven loops or whatever.

Ellen: That’s what we’ve been working on doing.

David: That’ it. That would be just a few minutes away in case he needs you

[18:36] Ellen: Absolutely. Yeah. Well, we live on a dead-end street, so we’ve kind of been making our way up and we’re almost to the point where we’re ready to go up and back (twice).

David: Oh, nice.

Ellen: Yeah. So that’s where we are now.

David: Nice.

Ellen: But yeah, we’ve had a couple setbacks, but it’s okay.

David: Oh, okay.

[18:51] Ellen: Yeah. So how does gratitude impact professionally and personally?

David: Well, I think if you look at our personal lives where you interact with your family and friends and your spouse and girlfriends, boyfriends, whoever it might be. I have this thing about, I always like to present the same person every single time, and you can always count on me to be consistent. And Ellen’s not going to go, “David, how are you?

“What do you need, Ellen?

And you go, “Oh, well, what’s wrong with David?”

And so that goes true for our relationships too, is that we owe it to people to present the same person every time. Because if you don’t, that person thinks that they’ve done something wrong, “Why is he mad?”

[19:29] Ellen: Unless, something’s happened or you’re in a bad mood…

David: Well, yes.

Ellen:  Or something;  just tell them. My husband and I, we have to do that or we would kill each other with this Coronavirus.

David: Right.

Ellen: But the other day I was snapping about something and, he said, “Why are you snapping at me?” And I just said, “I’m just mad at the world right now, leave me alone.”

David:  Yeah, yeah. And the reason I mentioned it’s in the personal or the business, cause the personal sense is what you and I are talking about. The professional sense is I’ve managed people all my life. And as, again, as a manager, it’s very similar, I think. Raising children, managing people is the same; got to set a very good example and you have to be consistent all the time because again if you’re different then they think you’re mad at them or something.

So, how does gratitude figure into that? One of the exercises that I do is when I have somebody do what I call “the daily number”. And so, they put the number down; it’s one to ten and I tell them, “This is a very personal exercise. You’re not going to share this with anybody. So, write down your number right now, one to ten, and ten is the best day of your life. And one is one of the worst days of your life.

So, they put the number down. I say, “Now don’t tell anybody. I put a circle around it. Now, next, I want you to write down the number one thing you’re grateful for.” So, I give them that moment. “Okay, now, if you go and we pick two things, write that down.” And then finally, “Three things. These would be the top three things you’re grateful for in order of priority.” And I don’t lead the witness, but I would hope a lot of people will put their health at number one because without that, you don’t have much else. But whatever it might be, that’s number one, number two and number three. And then, I tell them now, ”Number four is. Write down. What was the highlight of your day? What was the best thing that happened to you yesterday?”

[21:05]: And I’ll give ‘em a chance to think about it. So, then I say, “Now reread those four things, just silently to yourself. And then I want you to put another daily number at the bottom and put a circle around that.” And then I go, “Now by show of hands, high five in the screen, or high five in the chat, or whatever it might be, how many people’s number after reading those four things went up?”

Half the people raised their hand. And so, that’s my example of giving somebody a live breathing example of how gratitude can affect you. So, by doing that, and by always focusing on what you have versus what you don’t have, you can acknowledge what you don’t have, but keep it in its place and realize that you’re going to get things solved from the positive side, not from the negative side.

[21:47]: We know that when two people go into a hospital with the same disease, the positive attitude lives, the negative attitude dies; they’ve proven that many times. So, whether it’s personally or professionally if you’re in a better state of mind, you’re going to present yourself better. And that’s, by focusing on what you have and, writing it down is so important.

And I might add too, I know we’re on the radio, but is this The Broker’s Daily Gratitude Journal, there’s a little saying in the upper left-hand corner. And it says, “If you think about it, it’s like a dream. If you talk about it, it inspires you. But if you write about it, it empowers you.” And there’s something about writing, “I am so grateful to Ellen Violette for inviting me to be on her podcast.”  And it plants it in the brain. So, both of those situations personally or professionally, you just present such a better example of you by being from a grateful mindset.

[22:39] Ellen: Right. So, also, I would think that would be the same with peak performance just at a higher level.

David: Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

[22:48] Ellen: Well, I Love that you’ve given some actual exercises for people to do. Anything else you want to share about that before we talk about your book a little more.

David: Sure, that on the gratitude journal, the reason I like this, and you can get it on Amazon, it’s the Broker’s Daily Gratitude Journal. The reason I like it, because it’s already formatted for you. It’s got a template, so you have everything you can’t really, of course, you can’t see it (if you’re on the audio podcast), but it says, “Gratitude Today”. And you list the day in the date, and then there’s the daily number we just talked about. Then there’s two lines for current events and special occasions, so you don’t need to have a diary. Also, you can write that. Then it says, “I’m so grateful for,” and there’s about five or six lines of what you’re grateful for.

There’s two lines for the “highlight of the day”, which we just talked about, so that’s focusing on, and if you write in the morning, for instance, then I tell people, “What was the highlight of your day yesterday?” And you write that. And then, on the right-hand side is “Gratitude Tomorrow.” And I tell people, they don’t have to write in that every day, but I write in that every day about what I’m going to be grateful for that hasn’t even happened yet. And because you can say, “I’m so grateful for speaking to 10,000 people.” And that was before I even ever spoke to 10,000.

[23:57] Ellen: Oh yeah. That’s like Jim Carey carried around a million dollars.

[24:02] David: The check. Exactly. Yes, exactly, great example. And I would write, “I’m so grateful to speak to a hundred people.” Then a thousand and ten-thousand. And then, I said, “I’m just grateful to be speaking to a million people.” And then, I had a video hit a million hits, a million views.

Ellen: Yay!

David: And I know it was planted because it was planted in here. So, I recommend the gratitude journal. And the biggest tip that I give people that, “Well, I’m busy and I have this to do and everything …” I said, “Here’s my ask is just try it for a week. Just try it for a week and every day, write down,” Friday, November 13^th. And “I’m grateful to Ellen, I’m grateful for my health,” whatever you want, and try it for a week and notice what it’ll do for you.

And most everybody who tries it for weeks, will keep doing it. And so, it’s just the old thing is just start with small steps and baby steps and go from there. But it’s so powerful. And there’s something about the writing of it too. As I mentioned in the little saying on the front, because I noticed that there’s apps, you can go, “I’m so grateful to Ellen.” It’ll type it right there, but it’s not the same…

Ellen: No, it’s not the same.

David: …as having a pen and putting it on paper. And then, one of the great bonuses-I love to go back-like you mentioned, when you and I met at the Magic Castle, I’ve gone back to journals and say, “When was that?” And then, I’ll notice, “Oh, I met Ellen; I had a nice chat today,  under special events or whatever’s happening. And it’s neat. And then, I’ve had a tough day when bad things have happened and I see what I wrote that day. And it’s very helpful to kind of get your mind back in a positive place,

[25:31] Ellen: By the way. I just want to tell people, we met, that was like ten years ago.

David: Yeah. It was quite a while ago.

Ellen: And we hadn’t talked, but David was on my mind. I mean it never went out of my mind…

David: Thank you.

Ellen:… because when I was looking for guests, I contacted him. I said, “Do you remember me?”

David: Yeah.

Ellen: “Yeah, of course. I remember you.” Yeah. So, you never know when a connection is going to turn into something.

David: Exactly.

Ellen: Or, when you guys can work together. It just has to be the right time, the right thing.

[25:59] David: Exactly. And it’s interesting, Ellen, you’ve heard this the glass half full half empty…

Ellen: Yeah.

David: …and that’s probably the oldest example that we use, but when I’m in person, I have everybody stand up and put their hands in a clockwise manner and reach your arm way up high and turn it clockwise. Now keep bringing it slower, lower, and lower and lower and down to your waist. “Now, which direction is it going now? It’s going counter-clockwise” And everybody’s they all do like, “What happened? I was doing it the same thing.” And I start laughing. I say, “It’s just because you were look at it from above and below.”  Mine looks clockwise, one’s counterclockwise, but it’s my way of illustrating, you have that choice to decide how you want to look at something every single day. So…

[26:39] Ellen: Well, let me ask you one more question, how did you write the journal? Do you have any tips for writing journals?

David: Yeah. The journal is, it’s interesting because there was another book. I did Six-word Lessons to Embrace Gratitude that was mentioned in the bio and the journal. In fact, I’ve had some of these fraternity brothers that I’ve had for years. And as I said, I’ve got the template and you can’t see it on the radio, but it just shows, you kind of fill in the lines. But I had one of my fraternity brothers I’ve known for forty or fifty years said, “So, is this your top-selling book? And I said, “Yeah.” And he goes, “Well, it’s just basically a bunch of lines. I said, “But it kind of has everybody filled out. So, I tell my biggest tip is not only to just give it a try, but don’t necessarily, I fill out all the pages. In fact, you can see, and again, you can’t see, but Ellen can see (in the audio).

[27:27]: And every single day it’s all filled out on both sides. And when I’m selling the books live and they come up to the table afterwards, I had this one young man come up to me once after the talk. And he said, “Is this your personal journal?” And I said, “Yeah, I use my own, of course.” And he starts looking through it and he says, “Can I look through it? And I say, “Yeah, you can look through it, but don’t look too closely. So, he flips through it and he goes, “Wow, you write in this every day.

I said, “Were you listening to the talk. Did you hear the talk just now or?

Ellen: Well what do you do? Do you use a new one every year?

David:  They last for three months.

Ellen: O, 3 months.

David. They’re about ninety-days’ worth. And so, I have about four a year for every year. But like I say, the biggest tip by far, and I just think it’s a great tip on a lot of things is just give it a try and notice and really take a sort of assessment of your mood and see how you are before and after you write in that gratitude journal. And again, ninety percent of the people feel better afterwards. So, why wouldn’t that make sense to writing it every day?

[28:24] Ellen: Right. Of course.

David: Yeah.

Ellen: Well, thank you for coming on. This is really good stuff.

David: Thank you.

Ellen: And I actually, I going to get the book?

David: Okay. So, it’s the Broker’s Daily Gratitude Journal. I do have an affiliate link to it if you want to go through me, it’s  http://Ellen likes.com/gratitude-journal. And I do appreciate people going through my link because it helps me support this podcast.

David: Yes. Excellent.

Ellen: Yeah. Okay. Thank you again so much. I’m so glad we finally got to talk.

David: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for inviting me. That was fun.

[29:04]: Yeah. Well, that’s it for today to get the transcript go to https://booksopendoors.com/podcast. And you’re also welcome to join our Facebook group. I hope you will. That link is on the podcast page. I’ve consolidated the two groups, and this is the last time I’m going to mention that because it’s been several weeks now. You’ll still get the first notice of the new podcast, but there’s also a lot of engagement in the group now, networking support, promotional opportunities and more.

And when you go to the podcast page at https://booksopendoors.com/podcast, be sure to grab a copy of the Book Planning Secrets, A Simple 4-Step Guide to Writing a Bestseller. If you like to write your own books if you want to write books, if you’re already writing them, but you want to do it faster and easier, be sure to pick that up, it’ll help you. So, until next time, bye-bye,

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